Consultant to provide advice and orient on best practices around human rights remediation in the agricultural sector.

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REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL
TERMS OF REFERENCE

For CONSULTANCY SERVICES on REMEDIATION

The 3 FAIRTRADE PRODUCERS NETWORKS (FTA, NAPP and CLAC) are seeking expressions of interest from qualified consultants, consultant teams or organizations to provide advice and orient on best practices around human rights remediation in the agricultural sector.

1. Introduction to Fairtrade and the Producer Networks
   Fairtrade is an alternative approach to conventional trade and is based on a partnership between producers and consumers. Fairtrade (FT) exists to empower farmers and workers around the world. Some 1,700 producer organizations, representing over 1.7 million farmers and workers, are the foundation of the Fairtrade system. When farmers can sell on Fairtrade terms, it provides them with a better deal and improved terms of trade.
   To achieve its overall goals and bring about change Fairtrade has several types of interventions:
2. Set of standards and tools which make up the ‘rules’ for fair trading practices and Fairtrade engagement of producers, workers and businesses, based on prescribed ILO conventions on decent work and Fairtrade’s unique economic tools such as the Fairtrade Minimum Price & Premium based on the costs of sustainable production.
3. Set of strategies and policies which enable engagement with Fairtrade and set the priorities of the system (such as the Living Wage and Living Income strategies).
4. Fairtrade engagement and support services on the ground – e.g. producer programs, capacity building and projects, including amongst others producer level investments related to Fairtrade Sourcing Programs, Product Programs and Organizational Strengthening Programs.
5. Advocacy & Campaigner Networks
   Fairtrade International is a non-profit, multi-stakeholder association of 22 member organizations – three producer networks and 19 national Fairtrade organizations.
   Fairtrade Producer Networks are regional associations that represent all Fairtrade certified producer organizations. They represent small-scale producers, workers and other producer stakeholders. There are producer networks in three regions: Africa and the Middle East (FTA), Asia-Pacific (NAPP), and Latin America and the Caribbean (CLAC).
   For more information please visit: www.fairtrade.net ; www.fairtradenapp.org ; https://fairtradeafrica.net/; http://clac-comerciojusto.org/
   2) Background
   Human Rights are increasingly important for all supply chains and actors and are at the core of the work of Fairtrade and its Producer Networks.
   The Right to remedy within responsible business practices:
   The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) “Protect, Respect and Remedy” framework requires companies to take steps to respect human rights throughout their operations (avoid infringing on the human rights of others and address adverse human rights impacts with which they are involved). It is the State’s responsibility to protect against human rights abuses within their jurisdictions. There is a “shared responsibility” between governments and companies to “remediate actual harm”. In order to meet this responsibility businesses should have in place policies and processes to enable the remediation of any adverse human rights impacts
   Remediation within Fairtrade:
   While no organization can guarantee the complete absence of severe human rights violations such as child labour, forced labour, gender-based violence or other serious breaches to human rights, Fairtrade does have policies and standards detailing its commitment to acting to protect and remedy in case of detection.
   Fairtrade establishes in its Standards some core criteria that apply to all Fairtrade certified producer organizations on the issues of child labour, forced labour and discrimination (including gender-based violence and other forms of violence and harassment).
   For more information on Fairtarde standards applicable to small producer organisations visit:
   https://www.fairtrade.net/standard/spo
   For more information on Fairtarde standards applicable to plantations please visit: https://www.fairtrade.net/standard/hl
   Actors within the FT system are not the main duty-bearers for human rights nor are they competent protection authorities. Their act to protect can include safely reporting to government or other relevant protection agencies in each country. Remediation and its ultimate impact on the affected person’s well-being and protection depends largely on governmental or other protection entities in country.
   Any remedial action undertaken by Fairtrade producer networks or producer organizations can be complementary to the remedies undertaken by the relevant protection authorities.
   3) Objectives of the consultancy:
   The 3 Producer Networks (FTA, NAPP and CLAC) are seeking a consultant/organization with a human rights background and proved field-level work experience addressing the issues of child labour, forced labour, gender-based violence in an agricultural context.
   The objective of the consultancy is to provide technical advice around how to effectively implement PN’s and POs’ protection policies and remediate cases of child protection, child labour, forced labour, gender-based violence from a human rights-based perspective.
   The consultancy will orient the improvement of our remediation interventions and will provide insights around what are the approaches needed to reach effective remedial actions which are sustainable over time for the POs and PNs.
   We expect the consultant to orient us based on his/her previous experiences in implementing organizational protection policies for children and vulnerable adults and remedial actions but also through the mapping and liaison with local entities in the 3 continents which have been successful in implementing such actions in the agricultural context (both in plantations and small holders).
   The consultant will organize and facilitate exchange virtual workshops between the 3 producer networks and those entities.
   An expected outcome of this consultancy and of the exchange workshops is to provide experiences and best practices around the implementation of organizational protection policies for children and vulnerable adults and around sustainable remediation specifically oriented to the following questions and challenges, providing new approaches for overcoming those challenges (this is not an exhaustive list and more issues could be brought during the inception meetings):
6. Handling protection cases following a human rights-based approach from the moment they are reported to the moment the case is considered closed after implementing a successful remedial process.
7. Legal responsibilities/liability in country and within HRDD framework, defining where should the responsibility of a producer organisation starts and ends with regards to remediation outcomes and with regards to the responsibility of governments or other duty bearers.
8. Effective engagement with Governments and referral mechanisms with governmental protection agencies.
9. Engagement of business partners in remediation and linkage of company-level liability with producer organisation level liability.
10. Protection cases assessment and follow-up within the limitations of COVID 19 pandemic.
11. Commitment to act protect does not always match the capacity of the FT Networks and producer organisations to respond and seek the effective protection to impacted persons.
12. Remediation requires a certain level of expertise, time, financial and human resources, as well as operational capacity at producer network and at producer organisation level. This is a challenge as producer organisations are often constrained in these aspects.
13. While effective remediation depends on the availability of external expertise, partnerships and governmental protection mechanisms, the existence and level of response of those protection mechanisms is low.
14. An effective remediation also relies on the level of awareness and understanding of human rights and roles/responsibilities for remediation from producer organisations, which is quite often low.
15. Social norms and practices embedded within societies and communities which are a breach to the human rights standards.
16. Expectations of quick- short term remedial actions (from the markets- buying companies perspective) versus long-term gradual improvement processes and local appropriation that changes to social norms and practices require.
    Expected process and products:
    a) Inception meetings: An initial induction meeting with the 3 PNs.
    b) Interviews with key informants within each of the 3 Producer Networks to Develop an understanding of FT producer networks current systems, as well as experiences, efforts, strengths and weaknesses with regards to remediation. Review of existing remediation tools among PNs, their strength and provide advice on how to improve our actions and strategies towards a sustainable remediation
    c) Literature review and Mapping of expert entities, organizations, CSOs that have successful experiences of remediating child labor, forced labor and gender-based violence in the agricultural sector. Bring the best-in-class examples in the 3 continents. Establish contact with those selected entities by the Producer Networks and organize virtual workshops with selected expert entities, with participation of the 3 Producer Networks.
    d) Provide advice with regards to alignment of our remediation work with HRDD requirements.
    e) Final report outlining main findings and recommendations.
    f) Webinar presentation of their findings and recommendations around what a sustainable remediation entails and how it can be applied at the agricultural sector (small holder farmers).
    The above outputs will be delivered on a virtual basis. No presence meetings/workshops are foreseen.
    5) Timelines: To be rolled out during 2021
    Expected Start date: June 2021
    Expected End date: October 2021
    The selected consultant or consultant team will draft and submit together with the technical proposal a proposed timeframe for the consultancy. An example of template is provided below.
    Deliverables Duration (Estimated # of days) Deadline
    …………..
    ……………
    6) Key competences, technical background, and experience required:
    • Human rights background
    • At least 10 years of relevant field-level work on the issues covered by the consultancy (human rights, human rights due diligence-HRDD, UNGP and OECD frameworks on HRDD, child labor, forced labor, gender-based violence remediation).
    in at least one of the 3 regions (Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and Caribbean).
    • Previous experience working with the agricultural sector and along agricultural supply chains
    • Desirable prior experience in certified supply chains, preferable in Fairtrade.
    • Fluency in the following languages: English,French and Spanish
    7) Applications should include:
    • Technical and economic proposal (including VAT applicable and any other expenses) not exceeding the length of 10 pages
    • The organizations detailed profile (if applicable) or a description of the consultant’s previous experience.
    • A listing of organizations where similar service is being/ has been offered
    • CV’s of the consultant team.
    • Financial proposal including: Clear breakdown of the financial proposal. Total quote for the assignment inclusive of VAT, bank fees and any other fee.
    8) Proposal Submission and deadline
    Interested consultants/organisations should submit a Proposal with supporting documentation as an appendix electronically clearly marked “PROPOSAL TO PROVIDE CONSULTANCY SERVICES on REMEDIATION” by May 15th.
    Any questions concerning this TOR and applications shall be addressed to the following contact persons:
    Lilian Maina: [email protected]
    Sonia Dominica: [email protected]
    Konstantina Geroulakou: [email protected]
    Please note that all application materials will be shared internally within the 3 Producer Networks. Your submission of a proposal will be taken as de-facto consent to share your personal data with those on the committee.